Regarding the Sale of IGEFollow

This is where perception trumps reality, you guys took a beating on slashdot and the "IGE is in bed with Allak" rumors have clung to your reputation like a gerbil on Richard Gere.

Note the lack of buzz surrounding the divestiture of IGE from Affinity Media Corp yet the RMT/IGE/Allak links remain.

I've been here since 1999 and wish only the best for you in the future.

Please don't take this off track. If you want to ask about that type of stuff, make a post in the asylum and I can answer there. I want this to stay on the right topic.

One of the reason it was easy to assume Allakhazam had become corporate sibling, and fated to become actual partner to IGE was the lack of timely and precise info. I followed every official post that I could find, but it was only yesterday I see the name of the buyer for Allakhazm as "Affinity Media".

It was simply easier to believe the mysterious, (then) unnamed corporate "parent" company bought up a (probably) low profit entity like Allkhazam out of some perceived synergy with its known profit center, IGE, than to believe a company wants the Allakhazam site to dump money into its operation without expecting something extra back. In absence of contradictory info (or any info, really), it was most logical to assume the buyer intended to use Allakhazam to further its existing business and add value to its primary profit center.

I'm glad to see Allakhazam today is still without IGE advertisement or any apparent involvement with IGE. But, what was the business plan and objective in owning both IGE and Allakhazam continues to be a vexing mystery.

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Why would a company sell a high-revenue, profitable business center like IGE? Call me cynical, but it's unlikely the board of directors had a collective attack of the conscience. Legal liability and tax shenanigans are the only things come to mind, but I don't know enough about those to speculate. ._.

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I don't know how to track down more info on "Affinity Media" or "Affinity Media, Inc." if it is not the " Affinity Media International Corp." with the SEC filings. Anyone has suggestions?






Edited, Apr 30th 2007 2:22pm by IfritnoItazura

First off we were not a low profit business when they bought us. We were quite profitable. We were never purchased to combine with IGE. We were purchased to combine with Thottbot and Ogaming. Thottbot and Ogaming were popular sites that were losing money. We were a popular site that was making money. They wanted to integrate our business model. Also, the combination of Allakhazam and Thottbot into a single entity under the Zam umbrella gives Affinity Media one of the top 100 most visited sites in all the internet, and a clear stranglehold on the MMO market. I pretty much explained this in one of the first couple of posts I made after the sale. I agree it has dragged out far longer than I ever anticipated and many things are still not done, but that's really out of my control.

As for why they sold IGE, I am not privy to their thought processes. I doubt it has anything to do with any moral judgement about what IGE did. I'm sure it is just a pure business decision. Whatever they were paid was likely considered to be a better deal than whatever they would have made by keeping the business. I know when I sold my business I calculated the best and worst case income from the business over time, factored in that income from running a business is taxed as normal income, but income from the sale of a business is taxed at a capital gains rate, calculated the potential income of the money that would come instantly from the sale and came to a number where I felt there was more of a risk in keeping the company than selling it. When they got above that number I agreed to sell. I imagine Affinity did much the same thing.

Thanks for replying, Jeffrey. I really appreciate the chance for further clarification on the nature of Allakhazam and its place in its parent's corporate structure.


I didn't mean any offense; I just thought the revenue of IGE would be a lot higher than Allakhazam, and likely the net profit as well. (Plus, Allakhazam on its own apparently was not able to afford substantial infrastructure upgrade to meet traffic demand comfortably, which led me to believe the profit was on the "low" side.)


This makes business sense, and I wished I had caught this explanation at the time. ^_^;

I still harbor doubts, however, due to the seemingly secretive nature of Affinity Media.

- The company doesn't seem to have a web site.
- At this time, Allakhazam's "about" page doesn't have any reference to Affinity Media.
- In fact, the page doesn't even contain direct mention of the ZAM network--though the staff's e-mail addresses are clearly @zam.com.
- At this time, Ogaming's about page doesn't mention ZAM or Affinity Media.
- www.zam.com itself barely mentions its parent with a terse "Copyright © 2007 Affinity Media, Inc." The site barely qualifies as as a portal--it doesn't seem to want visitors.

This company apparently doesn't want attention--and it is in a business to draw attention (revenue by advertisement, and by subscription from visitors)--an apparent contradiction. Makes me wonder if it has something to hide.


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There is a substantial info gap regarding the company that is "Affinity Media, Inc.". Can you tell me which city it is headquartered at, and which state/country is it incorporated at?

If someone has experience researching companies can chime in, that'd be great. (I'm definitely no business investigator nor journalist ...)

It's business 101. A private corporation in transition that is still acquiring other businesses and organizing its structure does not want publicity. You don't want people following your moves and critiquing them. You want to be able to experiment and make mistakes without scrutiny. You want to be able to hire and fire people until you get management you are happy with. You don't want your rivals to get into bidding wars with you on pieces you might want to acquire. Once you have developed the model you like and have all the pieces in place, then you hire a PR firm and make a huge announcement and try to draw attention to yourself. Even then you only do that if it benefits you or if you are looking at going public some day. At some point Affinity will likely get to that stage, but it is not there yet.

Keep in mind that Allakhazam.com is just a small part of this company. We had to announce the purchase mainly because when we started to integrate ogaming it would have become pretty obvious. Frankly, the smart thing to do would have been to hide it completely until Affinity was ready to make whatever announcement they were going to make. Sure some rumors would have cropped up, but it likely would have been kept largely quiet. Instead, we made as complete an announcement as we could and tried to answer questions as best as we could. Look where that got us. I admit the whole process has made me far more cynical. I've tried to give the best information I could under the circumstances right from the start and instead of being believed, people have taken the word of an anonymous story posted on an outdated site and then assumed the worst. You all should be glad I didn't just take my money and retire (which I could certainly afford to do) and leave this site to just rot with the new ownership. Instead, I've stayed around and fought for everything we can get to make it better. Believe me it is not easy for someone who has been working for himself for years to re-enter the typical corporate enviroment.

Really, why do you care who owns us? Is the site being run the way you like it? If so, enjoy it. If not, give constructive criticism or just leave. Ask yourself this. Do you know who owns any of the other sites you use? Who owns Tentonhammer? What do you know about them? Who owns Curse Gaming? Do you know for sure? Who owns your local hoagie shop you get lunch at? Here's a test for you. Go to of all of your favorite sites and try to discover who actually owns them. Except for those that are publically held, you won't be able to. They are private businesses and have all the right in the world to keep their ownership ties secret.

To me the most interesting part of this saga is the fact that IGE is no longer as profitable. That seems like a ray of hope that MMO companies (even the much beleagued SE who's game economy was so completely monopolized by RMT activity) might be able to eventually fix the problem.

I also appreciate your candor in this matter throughout Alla. It takes some sand to be so forthright about your private bussiness. Kudos for that.

Yup yup. Possibly one of the most famous examples being Walt Disney World. Walt used a bunch of dummy corporations to buy up the "worthless" swamp land he wanted. Once word finally got out who was buying, the surrounding land that remained gained a significantly higher price tag overnight.

So...if Alla is like Disney World...it leaves one to wonder which admin is Mickey Mouse?

Can I be a princess?

Good job Allah,


You've effectively made everyone who ******* at you earlier look like a complete ****.

Thank you for being straight forward with your answer.

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, this does mean that Brock, the founder of IGE, still 'owns' Allakhazam through Affinity. As I doubt Brock (or anyone engaged in RMT business for that matter) has had a sudden attack of regret about the secondary market of RMT, it is probably safe to say that RMT related activities are not off the plate at all for the overall picture of Affinity Media.

It'll be interesting to see if there are any type of cross corporate agreements revealed in the near future between Yantis' and Brock's organizations.

That's pretty much it.

I'm not looking to get into a "Beat up Alla" thing here but "Why would you care?" has to be a question you knew the answer to. A lot of people believe that RMT is detrimental to the health of MMORPGs. You said that you were against RMT. You said, during the big Yantis buy-outs, that Allakhazam.com wasn't for sale to the RMT interests. People often restated that point with pride. Some said that their main reason for supporting this site was because it was the holdout against RMT.

Then you sold Allakhazam.com to a group founded by the guy who owned and controlled the largest RMT enterprise out there. Regardless of the details and whether or not "RPG Holdings" existed and that crap, Allakhazam.com was sold to make Brock Pierce, the man behind IGE, the ultimate CEO of Allakhazam.com.

I'm not saying that now you love RMT. I'll happily admit that the site still goes after RMT spam and isn't plastered with IGE banners. But you honestly wondered why people cared?

Cherried for truth.

When I first came to this site in 2004, I can safely say that I didn't know jack shIt about gaming, nor did I have any real concept of the sense of 'community' that a game can foster.

I have a strong hatred for RMT and I've learned how to show proper respect for my fellow players, something that was cultivated out of what I picked up from these forums. It was through these forums (particularly the private server ones for XI) that I started to connect with other people on my server, and within the game as a whole, to stretch that out.

While I can't say that I'm going to something like Allanois, I do know a few people that I met thru these forums that would have no problems if I dropped on by to visit for a couple days to meet 'em. I belong to several different forums across the web, and this is one of the extreme few where I could say "Yeah, I'd meet people from here offline". This is also the only site online where I pay a yearly subscription to, and do so willingly...and the community and the ideals that this site has makes me want to continue doing so.

When the sale took place and alot of the details were kept secret and all of these "zomgz IGE ownz Alla!1" rumors were floating about, it bothered me somewhat when the site didn't immediately step forward to dispel everything. I understood it from a business standpoint, but as a loyal poster...it didn't make sense.

This sale is something I am extremely happy about, for it hopefully will dispel that "IGE owns Allakhazam" or whatever the naysayers are saying. The fact that we care who owns this site should show how much we ultimately care about it.